Systems and methods for automatic physical object status marking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10460632-B2
Application number	US-201816001288-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2018
Priority date	Jun 9, 2017
Publication date	Oct 29, 2019
Grant date	Oct 29, 2019

Abstract

Described in detail herein are systems and methods for an automatic physical object status marking system. An electronic label can display a machine-readable element encoded with an identifier associated with a physical object on the display. A first computing system can receive instructions to modify a status of the physical object. The first computing system can retrieve the identifier associated with the physical objects and the identifier associated with the electronic label. The first computing system can control display of the electronic label to display a visual indicator associated with the status. An RFID reader can detect a RFID tag of the electronic label. The RFID reader can transmit the identifier associated with the electronic label to the second computing system. The second computing system is prevented from scanning a machine-readable element associated with the physical object in response to receiving the first identifier from the RFID reader.

First claim

We claim:

1. An automatic physical object status marking system using electronic labels, the system comprising:
a plurality of electronic labels, each electronic label configured to be affixed to a corresponding one of a plurality of physical objects disposed in a first location of a facility, at least one electronic label including a display, a RFID tag encoded with a first identifier, and an image capturing device affixed to the at least one electronic label, the at least one electronic label configured to:
capture, via the image capturing device, an image of one or more attributes associated with a first one of the physical object;
transmit the one or more attributes to a first computing system; and
display a machine-readable element encoded with a second identifier on the display based on the image, the first identifier is associated with the at least one electronic label and the second identifier is associated with a first one of the physical objects on which the at least one electronic label is affixed;

the first computing system including a database and being in selective communication with the at least one electronic label, the first computing system configured to:
receive instructions to modify a status associated with the at least one physical object;
query the database to retrieve the second identifier associated with the first one of the physical objects and the first identifier associated with the at least one electronic label; and
control the display of the at least one electronic label to display a first indicator associated with the status;

at least one RFID reader disposed with respect to a second computing system, the second computing system configured to:
detect the RFID tag of the at least one electronic label affixed to the first one of the physical objects in response to the RFID tag being within range of the RFID reader; and
transmit the first identifier encoded in the RFID tag to the second computing system, and

wherein the second computing system is disposed at a second location in the facility and is operatively coupled to an optical scanner, the first computing system, and the at least one RFID reader, and
wherein the second computing system is prevented from scanning the machine-readable element associated with the physical object in response to receiving the first identifier from the RFID reader.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first computing system is configured to:
determine the second identifier is associated with the first one of the physical objects;
generate the machine-readable element encoded with the second identifier; and
control the display of the at least one electronic label to display the machine-readable element.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first computing system is further configured to:
detect that the second computing system is prevented from scanning the machine-readable element; and
control the display of the at least one electronic label to display a second indicator.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the first and second indicators are different colors.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first computing system receives instructions to modify the status associated with the first one of the physical objects from one or more third party systems.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the display of the at least one electronic label is an e-ink display.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the display is a light emitting diode (LED) display or a liquid crystal display (LCD).

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one electronic label affixed the first one of the physical objects, is removable.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the at least one electronic label is removed from the first one of the physical objects and affixed to different one of the physical objects, and in response to being removed from the first one of the physical objects and affixed to the different one of the physical objects, the at least one electronic label is configured to:
render, on the display a machine-readable element encoded with a third identifier associated with the different one of the physical objects.

10. An automatic physical object status marking method using electronic labels, the method comprising:
capturing, via an image capturing device affixed to at least one electronic label of a plurality of electronic labels, an image of one or more attributes associated with a first one of the physical object; each electronic label configured to be affixed to a corresponding one of a plurality of physical objects disposed in a first location of a facility, the at least one electronic label being affixed to the first one of the physical objects and including a display, and a RFID tag encoded with a first identifier;
transmitting the one or more attributes to a first computing system;
displaying a machine-readable element via a display of the at least one electronic label based on the image, the first identifier is associated with the at least one electronic label and the second identifier is associated with a first one of the physical objects on which the at least one electronic label is affixed;
receiving instructions to modify a status associated with the at least one physical object via the first computing system, the first computing system including a database and being in selective communication with the at least one electronic label;
querying, via the computing system, the database to retrieve the second identifier associated with the first one of the physical objects and the first identifier associated with the at least one electronic label;
controlling, via the computing system, the display of the at least one electronic label to display a first indicator associated with the status;
detecting, via at least one RFID reader disposed with respect to a second computing system, the RFID tag of the at least one electronic label affixed to the first one of the physical objects in response to the RFID tag being within range of the RFID reader; and
transmitting, via the at least one RFID reader, the first identifier encoded in the RFID tag to the second computing system,
wherein the second computing system is disposed at a second location of the facility and is operatively coupled to an optical scanner, the first computing system, and the at least one RFID reader, and
wherein the second computing system is prevented from scanning the machine-readable element associated with the physical object in response to receiving the first identifier from the RFID reader.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
determining, via the first computing system, the second identifier is associated with the first one of the physical objects;
generating, via the first computing system, the machine-readable element encoded with the second identifier; and
controlling, via the first computing system, the display of the at least one electronic label to display the machine-readable element.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
detecting, via the first computing system, that the second computing system is prevented from scanning the machine-readable element; and
controlling, via the first computing system, the display of the at least one electronic label to display a second indicator.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first and second indicators are different colors.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising receiving, via the first computing system, instructions to modify a status associated with the first one of the physical objects from one or more third party systems.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Jones Matthew Allen
• Jones Nicholaus Adam
• Lewis Steven

Classifications

• A45C13/18

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